Peter Leven pleased as Aberdeen dig deep for point at Ross County

Aberdeen caretaker boss Peter Leven was pleased to see his Dons side dig deep in Dingwall as they battled for a point in their final Premiership game of the season.

Having gone behind early against Ross County, goals from Ester Sokler and Jamie McGrath put the Reds ahead, but they would then see Angus MacDonald sent off before Yan Dhanda netted a penalty.

The sending off forced Leven's men to battle for their point, with the result condemning the Staggies to a relegation play-off battle with Championship runners up Raith Rovers.

READ MORE: Ross County 2 Aberdeen 2 as ten-man Dons condemn Staggies to relegation play-off

READ MORE: Peter Leven praised as Aberdeen captain hails 'new era' after Neil Warnock survival job

Reflecting on the game, Leven said: "I thought we were great up until the sending off, I thought we dominated, we were in control, but then you saw another side of us where we dug deep, we had players throwing their body on the line, so I’m really happy with that too.

"The players, they kept on going, working hard but the sending off killed the game for us in an attacking sense. They threw five or six strikers on the pitch at one point, so it was a tough ending for us, but we stood up to it."

Leven and the Dons squad were given a rousing send off by the large crowd of travelling Reds, and with Jimmy Thelin soon set to take over, the Scot has reflected on his time in charge as caretaker boss.

During his run, Aberdeen have gone on an impressive unbeaten run, but the upturn in form sadly came too late for the side to sneak into the top six and they will start life under Thelin in the Premier Sports Cup group stages next term.

Join our Aberdeen FC Facebook group for all the latest Dons news

Leven added: "I’ve loved being in charge of the team and the supporters have been great. I want to thank them because obviously this is not where we want to be in the league but they’ve turned up in numbers again.

"Hopefully we’ve done alright for them, I hope they’ve enjoyed watching us over these last seven, eight games, but the players have got to take credit as well because they’ve bought into what I want to do.

"At times, we’ve played some great football. There’s a great core there, a good squad, good players, so hopefully we can take that momentum into next season.

"I’ve said it since day one, we’ve got good players, we just needed to tweak a few things and give a lot of players a little bit of confidence, but as you can see over these last few games, it’s worked. We’ve been playing, scoring goals, it’s exciting.

"You saw Ester getting his opportunity today and making it count. Ester works hard in training every day, just unfortunately for him, Bojan’s in front of him and he’s done so well this season. But Ester took his chance this afternoon, and it was a great header he scored with. It shows the depth we have in the squad."

Sign up to our Aberdeen F.C newsletter to get the latest headlines, transfer news and more sent to your inbox

With Connor Barron linked this week to a shock call-up for Scotland's Euro 2024 squad, Leven has addressed the news with the Under-21 international having potentially played his final game for Aberdeen.

Leven said: "Connor is a top player, I think he’s played every game for me, so that shows you how much I think of him. He just knits things from defence into midfield to attack, he just connects it for me.

"He’s also got that wee bit of dig in him that I like, but he’s been fantastic and if he does get called up for Scotland, he deserves it."